How to change the clock to 12-hour format in Raspbian?

Question

By default, Raspbian displays a 24-hour clock:

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Normally, LXDE provides an option to change the clock format by opening Panel Preferences, selecting "Digital Clock", and clicking Preferences. However, this is disabled:

enter image description here

How do I change the format?

Clock settings were re-enabled in Raspbian Stretch (v9). Change the time format by right-clicking the time and selecting "digital clock settings". — Stevoisiak, Apr 11 '18 at 01:46

score 13 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 16 '15 at 04:14

First, the rationale for this:

"And with regards the clock plug-in – yes, I’ve disabled the config for the time being. The clock plug-in was a nightmare from a UI point of view. For example – popping up the calendar gives you a calendar window in which you can move a highlight to show a different day – for no purpose at all. It contained a lot of kludgey hacked code for the benefit of someone who wanted the option to have their clock in bold font."

— Simon Long

Now for the fix. Open a terminal and run:

leafpad /home/pi/.config/lxpanel/LXDE-pi/panels/panel

(Substitute leafpad with a console editor such as vi or nano if desired.)

Locate the following line:

ClockFmt=%R

...and change it to:

ClockFmt=%r

Save the file and either reboot or restart LXDE.

As of Raspbian Stretch (v9), clock settings were re-enabled. You can right click the time and select "Digital clock settings" — Stevoisiak, Apr 11 '18 at 02:02

Jim · Answer 2 · 2024-02-18T20:50:11.853

9

Changing the format of the time using either Ken's or Nathan's way works, but there is another difference between %R and %r. %r also shows the seconds ticking off. If you want them, great. If not, then you need to specify a different format, like %I:%M %p.

For a full list of formatting codes, see Customizing The Clock (from archive.org)

edited Feb 18 '24 at 20:50

answered Jan 15 '16 at 20:37

Jim

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5
10

Though I like to put %r in the tooltip so the full tooltip is now %A %x %r. – Andrew Nov 05 '17 at 23:49
That incredibly informative link is now dead :(( – Xbox One Feb 17 '24 at 17:16
@XboxOne. I found the old page in archive.org and updated the above link to display that instead of the original page. – Jim Feb 18 '24 at 20:50
@Jim awesome, that page is actually so useful. – Xbox One Feb 20 '24 at 17:45

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 15 '17 at 04:53

5

Use `%I:%M %p` instead

The seconds from %r are annoying and useless.

answered Aug 15 '17 at 04:53

dhchdhd

151
1
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This should probably be a comment on another answer, rather than an answer on its own. – Bex Aug 21 '17 at 07:21
Welcome to Raspberry Pi! This duplicates another answer (https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/a/41175/19949) and adds no new content. Please don't post an answer unless you actually have something new to contribute. – Ghanima Aug 21 '17 at 08:36

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 24 '15 at 16:57

1

On Pi 2, I have found right clicking on the clock, click digital clock settings, on clock format, change %R to %r

answered Oct 24 '15 at 16:57

Ken

11
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Note: his issue is that he CAN'T get to those digital clock settings. – Brian Oct 25 '15 at 10:16

How to change the clock to 12-hour format in Raspbian?

4 Answers4

Use %I:%M %p instead

Use `%I:%M %p` instead